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One of the wisest investments Collier commissioners can make when they take their next step Thursday toward approving the proposed 2017-18 county budget is to fully support the Sheriff’s Office spending request that’s rising for the fourth consecutive year.

Questions have arisen about the $22 million or more extra that Collier government will collect in property tax revenue for the coming year by keeping the same rate of $3.56 per $1,000 of taxable value when the overall value of property has increased about 8 percent to a record $108.6 billion.

Collier commissioners hold the first of two public hearings on the budget at 5:05 p.m. Thursday at the government complex, U.S. 41 East at Airport-Pulling Road.

Why spend those additional millions rather than cut the tax rate? It’s about investing in the area’s quality of life during these economic recovery years following the Great Recession.

New east-west roads, replacing aging bridges and delivering on long-promised park projects in growing Golden Gate Estates and East Naples will help enhance our quality of life, providing safety improvements or opportunities for a healthier lifestyle for all ages.

Yet there’s no better example of investing in Collier’s quality of life than the Sheriff’s Office.

Worthwhile increase

The $174.7 million Collier sheriff’s budget request for 2017-18 is a 7 percent increase over this year’s. That comes on the heels of increases the previous three years of 7 percent, 7.4 percent and 6.4 percent.

Yet for six fiscal years prior to that when Collier was in the throes of -- or emerging from -- the Great Recession, Sheriff Kevin Rambosk’s budget held flat or declined as much as 5.2 percent annually as the agency tightened its belt.

Rambosk told our editorial board last fall that the agency learned to operate more efficiently during the downturn and didn’t fill more than 100 positions. Now, his agency wants to fill 10 more positions for next budget year. Records show that still will leave the Sheriff’s Office with 175 vacancies compared with 185 positions currently authorized but not filled. The agency has about 1,400 authorized positions overall, including law enforcement, investigations, corrections, courts and youth resource officers.

Why the vacancies?

“There is a shortage of applicants,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Michelle Batten said. “The reasons are related to higher cost of housing in Collier County (and) a general change in attitude nationwide toward law enforcement as a career choice.”

Even as Rambosk’s agency kept positions open, Collier’s crime rate declined. This summer when 2016 totals were released, Collier’s crime rate had dropped to a 46-year low since records were first kept in 1971. The rate of 1,574 major offenses per 100,000 residents compares with 2,134 per 100,000 people in 2008 when the recession began to hit.

Do we feel safer? Clearly that’s the case, if you measure the number of times people call the Sheriff’s Office requesting service. In 2008, there were 575,140 calls for service compared with 380,856 in 2016, agency records show. Although the county’s population has increased by 50,000 the past decade, the number of calls for service has declined annually except for 2015, which was comparable to 2014.

Tax cut?

Today, the Sheriff’s Office utilizes ever-strengthening community partnerships to improve our quality of life, from relationships with Collier County Public Schools to the domestic violence shelter to outreach such as preventing identity theft and training groups how to react during a mass shooting.

What also stands out is the agency’s collaborative work in addressing mental health and substance abuse issues. The sheriff’s spokeswoman said as of July, 92.3 percent of the agency’s patrol staff had received crisis intervention training to de-escalate situations that could turn violent. Nearly 1,100 emergency service personnel in Southwest Florida agencies have been trained, the spokeswoman said.

So while some may call for a tax cut, we instead look no further than the Sheriff’s Office as just one example of the value of investing in our community’s quality of life.